A ' FRESH' WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 13^th/ MARCH 2020 !

I was up very early this morning and after a quick freshen up I first popped down to the local shop ( Salvador ) - at the bottom of our street, to see if he had any ‘ Toilet Rolls’ – he did, so I grabbed a few packs and Brenda went back later for some more! ( Result!) 

I then shot down to Sabinillas and found a spot to park, right in front of the entrance of ‘ Mercadona’ – ready for when it opened – by 9-00 am there was over a hundred people waiting outside, in the next half hour it was full, ( all of Sabinillas & Manilva!) - all 11 check-outs had queues backing up to the back of the store ( 30/40 deep, all with full trolleys!) It was everyman & women for them-selves! The shelves were empty by the time I reached the check-out – I managed to find most of our regular goods, except of course bottled water and toilet rolls!

See below;

I then picked up the local newspapers from the ‘ English Bookshop’ before going along to check if the local market was open, it was not, ( no fresh flowers & wall plants) - after yesterdays closure, by the ‘ Council’ – which now also includes all the schools, the sports centre and all the sports fixtures!

Meanwhile back at the house Brenda had taken ‘ Lolo’ for his first walk of the day, when I returned she had cooked some ‘ English Pork Sausages’ so as I could have a well-earned ‘ Toasted Sausage Butty’ – smothered in ‘ HP’ Brown sauce – open on brown for herself, with mugs of hot/strong tea!

Late last night as were going to bed, just after mid-night, we had a very nice surprise ‘ Skype’ video call from Sandra & Bill over in Everett, Ontario, Canada, it was just after 7-00 pm over there, they were in fine spirits, Bill was preparing their supper of ‘ Buffalo Wings - Grilled Chicken Wings ’ with his famous ‘ Buffalo’ sauce! Sandra was feeling a lot better, after visiting an ‘ Osteopathy Clinic’ for treatment for her ‘ Sciatica’ – she is hoping that she will now not need an operation, she has been off work for six weeks.

Yesterday her sisters daughter, who is pregnant and expecting her second baby in the next few days, was in a traffic accident, when she was ‘T-Boned’ in her car, at traffic lights, when a young boy-racer went through the ‘Red Lights’! She and the soon to be born baby are fine!!

Sandra & Bill are ‘self-quarantining’ ( two weeks) - after their visit to Florida over last weekend, as they passed through a very busy and packed ‘Toronto International Airport’ on Monday morning, they had a nice relaxing weekend with their friends, taking in the sights of ‘ Fort Meade’ – most of the ‘ Natives’ were friendly!

See below!! “ ALLIGATOR ALERT “!

This morning as I set off the sun was just rising above the choppy  Mediterranean, as there was a stiff breeze, the sky was cloudless and blue, so by lunchtime it’s forecast to still reach 21/22 degs – overnight down to 12/13 degs, staying warm and sunny, tomorrow a little cooler, but still warm & sunny, before the wet, windy & cold ‘ Atlantic’ front hits us on Sunday, bringing with it a spell of very wet and colder weather, with very strong winds, all of next week and over next weekend, ‘ Gale force’ by next Thursday,  when it’s already on the ‘ Yellow Alert’ for storms ! Hovering in the mid ‘Teens’ with moderate to heavy rain, thunder at times, watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Grilled Salmon Steaks ‘ garnished with seared Asparagus Spears & Prawns, accompanied with a classic ‘ Hollandaise’ sauce, served with whole Baby ‘ French’ Green Beans, Broccoli Florets and ‘ Pomme de Terre Rissolee ‘ – Baby New Potatoes, boiled in their skins and then tossed in foaming Parsley Butter until crisp & golden.  

On Saturday it’s a large ‘ Grilled Rib of Beef’ – on the bone, then after resting sliced into fingers ‘ French’ style and served with triple-cooked ‘ Pont Neuf’ chips, on Sunday it’s going to be ‘ Pan-Seared Marinated Spanish Lamb Cutlets’ resting on a bed of my classic ‘ Boulangere’ Potatoes, with a ‘ Minted Gravy ‘!

This afternoon we will be watching the final day of the ‘ National Hunt Racing’ from the ‘ Cheltenham Festival’ on ‘Gold Cup’ day, sadly over the weekend, on the sports front, is now been mostly cancelled, postponed or moved to later in the year, watch this space.

And finally !

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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MANILVA TODAY

THURSDAY 11^th/ APRIL 2013

This morning the weather is still sunny and warm but a little breeze has got up, the forecast is the same for over the weekend and into next week; we have just come back from our walk around the village with the dog, at what is going to be the new ‘Plaza Vendimia’ it is full steam ahead with 8 workmen on the go, when I took the pictures they were on their coffee break! At the church there is no sign of any action, they must be waiting for the concrete to dry! Still a lot of finishing work to be done on the ‘Plaza Pozo del Rey’around the outside and what we think are going to be the entrance and exits to the car park, the play area and park are shooting up as you can see in all the pictures above.

Last nights game at Barcelona was very gripping and when Messi came on as a sub the change in the team and the crowd was amazing, one interesting fact – Xavi made history by completing 96 passes out of 96( Yes, that’s 100%) – the draw for the semi-finals is on Friday at lunchtime – very interesting, I can’t wait to see who plays who! Spain v Germany !!

After the match it was time on TVE1 for the first ever “ Master Chef ”on Spanish TV; it is very ‘Glossy’ and over produced with lots of moving camera shots, which I hate and the details flash up very quickly, not giving you the time to read them; they have spent a fortune on the studio kitchens and have been promoting it for months. It was the programme when they choose the final 16 last night and in the end eliminated the first one; it got very loud with lots of shouting, wailing and crying – and that was just the men! The food was nothing special and in fact it was surprising that it was so Spanish – Black Paella? The studio test was to produce a dish from the whole large ‘Rodaballo ”-see the picture above, in front of them; not one of them new how to fillet the Turbot and they all left the Black skin on! Most of then just pan-fried the fillets, badly and garnished them with Cockles and Gambas!! Not a good start. How the ‘Celebrity ?’ judges could distinguish between them was hard to see!  Watch this space.


PS; The sole English representives in the Europa League semi-finals are Chelsea after Newcastle and Spurs went out in the 2nd leg of the quarter finals tonight.

Thoughts for the Day;

Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens.  Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.

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MANILVA.

Tuesday 10th. June.

The forecast for the next few weeks is hot and sunny and as we get up we see the bright blue skies over Manilva as we plan out what to do for the week.Today we stayed local and asked Anna around for supper as I had made a very hot curry and she had been fancying one for ages ! We also had a phone call re. our House-sitting advert from a very nice lady offering us a full time position but we said no very nicely but she asked us to send her some more details to put on file so we then started a series of e-mails as we got to know about her and the company she works for and visa-versa she found out about us from the blog-page! The outcome is that we have now been put on the web page of the company that she runs down on the Costa del Sol for a British based company;Dr. Julia Nilsson PhD. Is also a very interesting person in her own right and has a very varied CV as she has travelled around the world. “Alpha Concierge Lux ” specialise’s in looking after the VIP customers every need-watch this space!

Wednesday 11th.June.

We went off in the morning to Marbella to do some shopping at the large mall and down in Porto Banus for a particular CD and toiletries that we can’t get at our end of the Costa only to find out that they where all closed for the Feria holiday in Marbella! So we had to come all the way back and on the way we called into the garage to check on the Winnebago.We have an advert in the local paper everyweek and get 2/3 calls a week which we pass on to the garage who also have a advert in the trade paper each week.Fingers crossed! We also have a problem down on the coast as the garages are running out of petrol due to the transport drivers strike which started on Monday.In the evening we listened to Paul Hickling on REM.FM 91.9 which is a English speaking talk radio station and he was the guest on the Profiles show,one to watch for the future!

Thursday 12th.June.

Brenda had her last jab today and the doctor is very happy with all the results and the great improvement that she has shown over the past couple of weeks so she is now on some tablets to make sure that things carry on getting better over the next couple of weeks. We then went to the Hypermarket to do the weekly shopping only to find that it was empty of all the fresh goods and of most of the general goods due to the drivers strike which has hit everywhere very quickly due to panic buying but you can understand it when you see the lorries on the roads when we cross Spain,everything goes by road! The fishermen are also on strike so even some of the fish restaurants have been forced to close,all due to the fuel cost problems here. The strike is now nearly over and things will get back to normal by next week.

Friday 13th June !

We went out to the local shops and we hunted around and found most things in one or another as we stocked up for the weekend as the shops got back to normal as the lorries started to arrive from all over Spain.We called into our local butcher and bought some Pork as Mano is off on Sunday and might be able to make dinner if everything stays the same! Brenda goes out on the roof terrace in the afternoon to sunbath and I join her later as the sun moves round as we have been taking things very easy and giving her the chance to get fully better.She has also spoken to her two sisters in England who have been on holiday as they did not know about Brenda’s illness before they went away. I’ve also put some more radio stations on the PC and have also got the English newspaper’s on line as the papers have not been arriving due to the strike.At lunchtime we are now eating salad made from all the very fresh local growers who have kept the shops in the village stocked.